Subject: Pretribulation or slightly after ? |
Bible Note: And regarding the book of Acts, we are constantly having to struggle with complacency, but that is not to say that the early church was the ideal. Take a look at the epistles and look at how much error was in the early church that needed to be corrected by the apostles! Heresy and false teaching and laziness and end-times craziness and sexual sin and abuse of authority and disorder in worship and legalism were all things that had to be attacked in the days of Acts. And that was when the apostles were alive! Yes, we do need to regain fervency based on TRUTH, but that was not limited to the first few decades after Pentecost. Fervency and zeal for the truth waxes and wanes. May it be that we are a people zealous for God, in keeping with his truth. Lastly, you wrote: "Many a protestant church still wears the grave cloths of tradition that was inherited from their fore fathers but not from the Word of God." This is the biggest problem of all. You are equating a lack of fervency with tradition. Jeus established a tradition, which the apostles not only wrote down, but also passed on verbally (how do you think the church received revelation before the completion of the writing of Scripture). The question isn't whether we should adhere to tradition or not, but rather WHICH tradition is to be adhered to. And lest we divorce fervency from tradition, you have to remember that the greatest revival in American history sprang from the preaching of a dyed-in-the-wool CALVINIST by the name of Jonathan Edwards. Apparently God doesn't hate all established traditions as much as do those who are making up new traditions of their own to compensate. In fact, God Himself is a tradition lover and a tradition establisher: "Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God." --Psalm 78:1-8 And that is why we should be striving to adhere to the traditions of the fathers, as faithfully and infallibly recorded in the Scriptures! --Joe! |